1,4-Diaminobutane (also known as putrescine), abundantly found in dead organisms and semen, is used as a monomer of polyamide-4,6 in the chemical industry. To date, the commercialized process has been a chemical process. In the process, succinonitrile is produced by reaction of hydrogen cyanide and acrylonitrile, and dehydrogenated to yield 1,4-diaminobutane, followed by purification. However, this chemical process suffers from the disadvantages of treating a highly toxic raw material, requiring a high temperature and a high pressure for hydrogenation, and using a highly expensive catalyst.
Thus, as an alternative to the chemical process, a carbon source derived from recyclable biomass is required for use in the production of 1,4-diaminobutane.
Recently, fermentation using variant microorganisms has been developed to produce 1,4-diaminobutane (Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2009-0107920). However, studies on separation and purification of 1,4-diaminobutane from fermented solution at high purity and high yield remain insufficient.
Leading to the present invention, intensive and thorough research into separation and purification of 1,4-diaminobutane, conducted by the present inventors, resulted in the finding that 1,4-diaminobutane can be separated and purified at a high purity and high yield through a series of processes including desalination by addition of an alkaline material to a cell mass-removed, fermented solution, removal of impurities by crystallization, and repeated cycles of recovery and concentration.